The Crew Read Online Free PDF Page A

line-shooters . . . 
came back looking like a colander . . . could’ve stepped out and walked on the bloody flak . . . can’t have been me, old boy. I was over Bremen at the time
 . . .
    â€˜The usual?’ Peter asked when she finally reached him. He leaned across the counter and ordered the shandy. They clinked glasses. ‘Another one chalked up,’ he said. He’d been to Stuttgart the night before and two of the other Lancs hadn’t come back. He wouldn’t mention that, of course. It wasn’t done to talk about the losses and the dead comrades. You pressed on regardless.
    Somebody bumped into her and sloshed beer over her sleeve. Peter took hold of her arm. ‘Let’s get away from this bloody mob.’
    They found some space in a passageway off the bar and she mopped at her uniform with her handkerchief.
    â€˜I hoped it’d be you de-briefing us, Cat.’
    â€˜Not my turn. Sorry.’
    â€˜We had that bastard Pilson. I think he takes pleasure in spinning it out as long as he can.’
    â€˜He’s only doing his job, Peter.’
    â€˜Is he? Sometimes I think he just wants to throw his weight about – show what an important chap he is, safe and sound on the ground while we risk our bloody necks.’
    The strain was getting to him, she thought. He never used to sound so bitter. Never took any notice of wingless wonders like Flight Lieutenant Pilson, who’d never flown anything but a desk in his life. He looked very pale, with dark marks under his eyes like bruises, and these days he rarely smiled.
    She touched his arm. ‘You need a break. Haven’t you got some leave due?’
    â€˜Well, we’ve moved up a couple of places on the roster since last night . . .’ He was referring to the missing crews – obliquely.
    â€˜Will you go home?’
    â€˜I’d sooner go somewhere with you, Cat.’
    It wasn’t the first time he’d asked her and she’d always refused. This time she couldn’t have gone anyway. ‘I can’t get leave at the moment, Peter. It’s too busy.’
    â€˜Surely you could get a forty-eight at least?’
    She shook her head. ‘Honestly, I couldn’t.’
    He looked hard at her. ‘You could if you really wanted.’
    â€˜I’ve told you, I can’t.’
    â€˜And I don’t believe you.’
    â€˜I’m sorry but it’s the truth.’
    He stared down into his beer. ‘I want a lot more than just a quick forty-eight somewhere, Cat. I’mtalking about us being permanent. I want us to get engaged and married – asap. You know that. I’ve asked you enough times.’
    â€˜I still think we ought to wait, Peter.’
    â€˜Because I’ll probably get the chop?’
    â€˜No, that’s got nothing to do with it.’
    â€˜Then why won’t you?’
    She said truthfully, ‘I don’t know. I just think we should be very sure. We’ve only known each other six months.’
    â€˜
I’m
perfectly sure.’
    â€˜Please try to understand. Don’t make it so difficult.’
    â€˜It’s you who’s making it difficult. So bloody complicated when it’s perfectly simple.’
    â€˜Oh,
Peter
 . . .’
    â€˜Oh,
Catherine
,’ he mocked her, and then smiled suddenly. The tension went from his face and he looked more like his old self. A different person. ‘Oh well, I suppose I’ll just have to learn to be patient.’
    She smiled, too, relieved at his changed mood.
    More people had come into the bar, and among them she noticed the American pilot with one of the Code and Cypher WAAF officers. Fast worker, she thought. She couldn’t see any of the rest of the crew, but then he wouldn’t want them around on a date, cramping his style. She wondered what the others were up to and whether they’d stuck together